Participants of South Asian Workshop call for a resistance to the anti-people policies of the World Bank, IMF, ADB and other IFIs

The debt campaigners and activists from South Asia including participants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India that have assembled at Dhaka for the “3rd South Asian workshop on International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the Debt Crisis” have called for region wide resistance movements against anti-people policies of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) . This conference has been jointly organized by SAAPE, VAK and IED and CADTM. Around 100 participants from various organizations across different countries of the region have taken part in this workshop.
This two day workshop from 19-20 December, 2009 also witnessed the presence of leading International Debt Campaigner from Belgium, Dr. Eric Toussaint, President of CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of third world debt).

Presentations from Prof. Anu Mohammad & Dr. M M Akash on the Bangladesh macro-economic situation and the overall economic crisis and Dr. Eric Toussaint on the role of IMF-World Bank in the aftermath of the overall global capitalist crisis were the highlights of the first day. The day also witnessed presentations from Monower Mustafa on World Bank led energy sector reforms in Bangladesh and B Skanthakumar on the recent IMF loan to Sri Lanka and the debt scenario in the country.

The second day witnessed from Sushovan Dhar on the World Bank led mining in India leading to loss of lives and livelihoods with a case study on the NALCO aluminium project in Orissa, India. The other presentations on the day was by Masud Ali on impacts of the World Bank led jute sector reforms in Bangladesh and Farooq Tariq on the privatisation process under the military and other governments in Pakistan, the impacts of IMF conditionalities on Pakistan. Dr Eric Toussaint elaborated on the financial crisis resulting from the speculative crisis in the West and its impact on the Third World. The participants also discussed and finalized a future course of actions.

The major themes highlighted in the conference were the attempts by the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to privatize the basic & essential services, to privatise industries endangering the livelihoods of workers connected to it and the imposition of stringent conditionalities for providing aid. The participants observed that the privatization of state owned enterprises under neo-liberal agenda minimizes the state’s sovereignty and welfare role and strengthen the repressive mechanisms which serve the interests of the multinational companies at the cost of the people. The ecological and environmental degradation wrought by IFI funded projects were also dealt in detail.

Various other presentations demystified and condemned the roles of IFIs in increasing the burden of debt, privatizing basic services and thus making it out of control of the working poor, clear violations of Human Rights and environmental concerns, etc. It was observed that all this was done in the name of development and progress.

It was observed with sadness that no governments in South Asia dared to confront the hegemonies of the IFIs in spite of tremendous mass mobilizations and demands from below. In order to strengthen South-South co-operation the assembly gave a call for the "Bank of the South".

The future course of action decided to take the issue forward in terms of mass awareness campaigns and mobilizations to force the South Asian governments in the various countries of the region to resist the anti-people policies imposed by the IFIs, to say “no” to the conditionalities imposed by the IFIs and also to get the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) out of the region.